On Monday, December 16, in the match of the 17th round of the Ukrainian championship, Kyiv "Dynamo" defeated Rivne "Veres" with a score of 1:0. The match took place in Kyiv at the "Dynamo" stadium named after Valery Lobanovskyi. We present to you the post-match press conference of the head coach of the capital team, Oleksandr Shovkovsky.
— First of all, I want to thank our heroes, our military, who do everything possible to ensure our life in Ukraine continues, so that we can play football, give emotions. We always want the emotions to be positive. But that’s not always the case. Unfortunately. Or maybe it should be like this: everyone wants to be satisfied.
But it’s all thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the people who do everything possible for us to develop in Ukraine and for our lives to go on. We bow low to them and are grateful!
Secondly, I want to congratulate everyone on the end of a difficult first half of the season. Yes, everything needs to be analyzed, but already now I can say that we have gone through this segment of the season in the Ukrainian championship at a fairly high level, however, to our decent results in the UPL, a large spoon of tar was added in terms of performances on the international stage. We need to analyze why this happened. We need to build confidence and skill. Yes, there are no teams that always win, it has been and will be so, but I always say: in any situation, we will do everything possible to win; we will always play only to win.
As for today’s match, we specially moved it to Monday, so the team had one more day to recover. Undoubtedly, against the backdrop of our competitors’ results in this round, I tried to reach out to the players, to convey to them that in the context of the upcoming match, the tournament standings of the teams do not matter. The last round of the UPL this year showed that all teams want to win, but whoever is more motivated, has more desire, and is more disciplined will win.
I thanked the guys for the fact that, given the schedule we had, they approached today’s match with the necessary level of desire and motivation. Yes, not everything worked out. Yes, the quality of the field, the weather conditions, and the opponent's mood, who wanted to rehabilitate after a bitter defeat in the last round ("Karpaty" — "Veres" — 5:0, — editor's note) affected. But we also wanted to rehabilitate: our results in the Europa League are extremely negative. We must acknowledge this. To be able to look each other straight in the face, draw conclusions, understand what needs to be corrected and how to do it, and move forward.
In one word, we prepared for a very tough game. And it turned out to be just that.
— Please share the plans of "Dynamo" for the off-season.
— The team returns from vacation on January 4, and on that same day, there will be a medical examination. But we will not stay in Kyiv: we will leave for Turkey on the morning of January 5, where we will prepare for the remaining two matches of the Europa League and the second half of the season in Ukraine. Of course, we would like to go out, but we will be heading out.
— Assess the return of Pihalyonok after injury.
— He had a very difficult rehabilitation after the injury. It was not easy for him, but we saw the desire he worked with and were completely satisfied with his attitude. We missed Pihalyonok. But in football, it happens; injuries are unavoidable.
Mykhavko also has an injury now. And Bražko was injured in the last match. The examination showed that he would not be able to help us today. Shaparenko has complications after illness; we could not risk his health.
It is now possible to say that before this match, we had many problems. Tymchyk had certain difficulties, Popov, Bilovar, Buialskyi. Therefore, the load that fell on the guys in these days was very large. Just the day before yesterday, I had only three central defenders at my disposal. And only yesterday it became clear that we could count on Popov.
— You started this part of the season in Ukraine with a match against "Veres" and ended this part of the season with a match against the same team. But the first match was easier for you than today’s. Did "Veres" improve, or has "Dynamo" become a bit weaker?
— The accumulated fatigue undoubtedly affected. But "Veres" also looks much better than last year. Moreover, this team gained confidence during the autumn period. They played at quite a high level and, to be frank, "Veres" looked quite confident against "Shakhtar" and "Alexandria" and, as a result, took points from these teams.
Therefore, we understood that we were facing a very tough game, especially since it was the last match of the year in the UPL.
In the first match against "Veres" we came right after the off-season training, we had freshness, strength, the team looked quite good, created many goal opportunities. True, we conceded an unnecessary goal, and we could have brought the match to a victorious conclusion more calmly.
Today the weather conditions, the quality of the field, fatigue, and recovery all played a role. But, I repeat, "Dynamo" will always play only to win. There may be changes in tactics, in game schemes, in strategy, but we will always play only to win.
— This is the first year for you as the head coach. How would you assess it for yourself?
— Even when I was a player, after each year, season, I analyzed my actions to start the new year or season not from the position I am in but from the understanding of what I did during this period to end up in this position, and whether I improved my condition compared to the previous period.
I say the same now to the players of our team: do not look at where you are now, but track what you have done to be at this top if we talk about the tournament table. You need to track your actions to analyze them, draw conclusions, and progress, develop. Because to remain in a certain place, you just have to run very fast. And to develop, you need to move forward with maximum effort.
— Which positions in "Dynamo" require strengthening? There are many rumors around the possible transfers of your team.
— I will not comment on the rumors. I can say that we always work on being able to strengthen the team. It is too early to talk about specifics, but we certainly have certain developments. I really hope that they will materialize.
Once again, I congratulate everyone on the victory, wish everyone a successful end to this year, victories in the next year (both big and small) and, of course, such a long-awaited victory for all of us!
Post-match press conference of the head coach of "Veres", Oleg Shandruk >>>
Oleksandr POPOV from the stadium "Dynamo" named after Valery Lobanovskyi